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STORY: IOM / CHILE VENEZUELAN MIGRANTS
TRT: 3.57
SOURCE: IOM
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: SPANISH / NATS
DATELINE: AUGUST 2022, COLCHANE, CHILE
1. Aerial shots, migrants and refugees irregularly crossing the Bolivian-Chilena border
2. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Jhonny Chacon, Venezuelan migrant:
“My name is Johnny Alexander Chacón Martinez. I’m a migrant here in Chile. I arrived yesterday. I left Venezuela, traveling through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia.”
3. Med shot, Venezuelan migrants arriving in Chile
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Jhonny Chacon, Venezuelan migrant:
“It took almost two months to walk with my pregnant wife and two children. It has not been easy to come here, but not very difficult either. We got much help once here.”
5. Various shots, Jhonny, Cribsel, and children, reception center
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Cribsel Chacon, Venezuelan migrant:
“Coming here to Chile has not been easy because we have to go through many things. Sleeping on the street is not easy… with kids getting cold, and [inaudible] people”.
7 Med shot, Migrants, reception center
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Cribsel Chacon, Venezuelan migrant:
“But everything one does is to give his children a better life. Everything for them not to give up and keep going once here. All one has to go through, but… all is done for our children.”
9. Med shot, Venezuelan migrants arriving in Chile
10. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Jhonny Chacon, Venezuelan migrant:
“I brought my children here to give them a better life, so they can have here things that couldn’t have, that they can study, everything...”
11. Various shots, IOM staff, migrants
12. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Susan Saavedra, Project Officer, International Organization for Migration (IOM):
“The first phase when people come at the transit center is supporting nutrition and hydration.”
13. Various shots, IOM staff, migrants
14. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Susan Saavedra, Project Officer, International Organization for Migration (IOM):
“The articulated work that IOM has done here is important because it allows a better information sharing, a better reception of people coming.”
15. Various shots, IOM staff, migrants
16. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Susana Soler, Venezuelan migrant:
“I came from Argentina two months ago.”
17. Various shots, IOM staff, migrants
18. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Susana Soler, Venezuelan migrant:
“It was OK from Argentina to Bolivia, but coming here got complicated because I had to pass through the desert and all that, as I do not have papers to enter Chile regularly.
19. Wide shot, Bolivian-Chilean border
20. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Susana Soler, Venezuelan migrant:
“I intend to work so my daughter can study at the University. And since she is there, that’s the easier path for her to study.”
21. Aerial shots, migrants and refugees irregularly crossing the Bolivian-Chilean border
Venezuelan migrants defy deadly desert conditions on their journey to Chile, moving along one of the most extensive migration routes in the world, said the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Often in small groups, exhausted people are on the move along one of the most extensive migration routes in the world, mainly embarking on foot with periodic intervals by bus, taxi, and other forms of transport.
The last hurdle for Venezuelans traveling to Chile is the grueling Atacama Desert, the driest and highest plateau in the world at nearly 4,000 meters above sea level and with temperatures dropping below minus 10 degrees Celsius.
Many migrants and refugees travel irregularly across these routes, confronting dangers such as robbery and the risk of sexual exploitation and abuse by criminal groups.
According to Medical Legal Services, seven people have died since the beginning of 2022, either due to exposure to extreme conditions or health complications stemming from pre-existing medical conditions exacerbated by the inhospitable terrain of the Atacama Desert.
Near the Chilean town of Colchane, and upon crossing the shared border with Bolivia at dawn, migrants are relieved to find life-saving humanitarian assistance by IOM.
They arrive hungry and suffering from hypothermia, dehydration, and altitude sickness.
As of July 2022, there were approximately 127,000 migrants who entered Chile through the irregular crossing, according to estimates by Chilean authorities.
Many enter Chile daily through Colchane, a small village of fewer than 500 residents, of whom 85 percent are indigenous.
Many are often driven by the desire to reunify with their family members and contribute to host communities.
Across Chile, IOM has stepped up its presence and the delivery of humanitarian assistance to respond to the immediate needs of migrants and refugees arriving in the country.
IOM distributes food, water, medical care, shelter, and basic relief items such as blankets and winter clothes provided by NGOs.
Furthermore, IOM has deployed a medical team to carry out first-aid care, an intervention that benefits migrants and host communities.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, IOM in Chile has had field staff stationed in Colchane to facilitate the rapid coordination and implementation of humanitarian assistance.
In coordination with authorities and civil society organizations, IOM has put in place the necessary infrastructure to temporarily house the migrant population in transit and attend to their pressing humanitarian needs.
Since 2014, more than 6.8 million Venezuelans have left their country; around 450,000 live in Chile.
